Leaked shots: Is this the new iPhone?

That’s an important distinction to make off the bat, simply because Apple rumours are like that — rife with inaccuracies, guesses, prototypes and intermittent outright fakery. The latest shots, published by iLab, bring together most of the commonly “accepted” rumours about the next iPhone, including a larger screen and smaller dock connector, making for a phoneâ€¦ that looks a lot like its predecessors; a union of the iPhone 4S design and, frankly, the very original iPhone with its metallic back.

In some ways if that’s true it’s not that much of a shock; Apple’s design history tends towards incremental changes to products, with revolutionary design changes few and far between. As always, it’s also worth keeping in mind that the existence of a new smartphone (no matter your brand loyalty) doesn’t make your existing handset redundant — it’s just another choice.